Alert! CID Team Z
by Poesia-Raro
Summary: When their now teenaged kids run into trouble, will the CID team reach them in time or will they end up having to save themselves? Not very logical or romantic.
1. Missing

**::/Alert! CID Team Z/::**

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A/N: Inspired somewhat by Harry Potter (as usual :D). This is the second generation as I see them. Since this idea hasn't been received very well in the past, let me make it clear that this is purely MY imagination, and everyone else is free to think and imagine as they like.

This is not for fans of DCP Shamsher, let me warn you! It contains Shamsher-bashing (in a funny way)!

Introducing:

Adi (you guys already know him of course, but still)-

Age 17, looks exactly like Abhijeet except he has Tarika's nose and a much more messy hairstyle than his dad's. Blessed with the combined brilliance and guts of both his parents, but with a mischievous streak that often lands him in trouble but also gets him out of it. His dearest ambition is to have his own gun (he can already shoot like a pro thanks to his genes and years of sneaking into the target practice area when Abhijeet isn't around). He often helps with the cases, though Abhijeet and Daya wouldn't have dreamed of letting him accompany them anywhere (much to his frustration). His friends affectionately call him Boss.

Saara (ditto)-

Age 15, Daya's adopted daughter. She was orphaned in a murder case when she was 3 years old, and Daya (after a tremendous shouting match with our dear old DCP Shamsher) got the high command's permission to adopt her. She's exactly like him in every way (except physically of course), and her dearest ambition is to be able to break a door all by herself. She's of medium height and very athletic, tanned from spending nearly all her time outdoors, with long straight hair and big chocolate brown eyes. She's also kind of a tomboy, and can deliver a really solid punch, due to which her nickname is Suckerpunch.

Kenny-

Age 17 and a half, Dr. Niyati's son. His real name is Kaushik, but Niyati only calls him that when she's really mad at him (which is very rare). As a child, he was constantly abused by his father, who blamed him for all his troubles, whatever they were. Finally one day, when Niyati came home to find her husband ruthlessly beating up her 8-year-old child, she knocked him out with a dictionary and fled the place with Kenny. An immediate divorce followed, of course, and Niyati moved back to Mumbai with Kenny, where she reconnected with her old friends at the CID and Kenny finally made his first real friends- Adi and Saara. He's a technological genius, and as Daya is fond of saying, "there's no technology invented that he can't crack". He's a little shorter than Adi, with a cute face, dark complexion and slightly spiky hair. His most prominent feature, however, is his unibrow, which he says makes him look like a skinny gorilla (though everyone else disagrees).

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"MMMOOOOOOOOOOOMMMMMMMMMMM!"

"Bloody hell!" Tarika jumped violently, dropping the potato peeler she was holding. "What on earth is happening in there?" she shouted, storming out of the kitchen and banging on her son's bedroom door. _"Aditya!"_ The next minute, the door was thrown open, and a scruffy-looking teenager in a grey hoodie, his bangs falling into his glittering dark eyes, stood in the doorway looking thoroughly frantic. "Mom, I can't find my sneakers!"

Tarika rolled her eyes, entered his room and lifted the bedspread, which had been trailing onto the floor. Bending down, she pulled a pair of black and white sneakers from under the bed, holding them up under Adi's nose. "You mean these?"

Adi grinned sheepishly. "Um, yes. Thanks." Taking the shoes from his mother's hand, he sat down on the edge of his bed to put them on. Tarika raised her eyebrows down at him. "Going somewhere?"

"Saara called and told me she has something important to discuss with Kenny and me," Adi informed her eagerly. "She says it's really good."

Tarika smiled, shaking her head in amusement as Adi got up. "Go on. But be home by 8, you hear?" she called as he hurried out of the house. "Yes Mom, bye Mom, take care, love you!" he yelled back over his shoulder as he ran off.

She sighed as she shut the door and retreated into the kitchen. Men were all the same, whether they were ACPs or 17-year-olds.

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"Hey, you two!"

"About time!" Saara exclaimed, her face lighting up as Adi jogged up to where she and Kenny were sitting on the back porch of Daya's house. Adi raised his eyebrows as he looked at her- she was wearing a sweater over her shirt and jeans, with her socks and sneakers on. Her long hair was tied in a braid that hung over one shoulder. What surprised Adi, however, was the fact that she was carrying a backpack in one hand.

"Are you going somewhere?" he asked, staring at her, and Saara grinned. "I got a lead on those drug dealers we were looking for."

"Remember the message we intercepted?" Kenny asked, getting to his feet. He slightly lifted the hem of his Delhi Daredevils jersey and pulled out, from his jeans pocket, what appeared to be a mobile phone. When he entered a code, however, the phone vibrated once, and the next minute, a projection appeared in front of them from the phone's screen.

Though Adi knew this message by heart from reading it so many times, he read aloud from the projection, careful to keep his voice low. "Meeting at lighthouse, 6 pm Wednesday. Bring the goods, exchange will be done there." He looked at Saara and Kenny. "It's 5.30 now. If we hurry, we can make it."

Saara smiled and opened her bag, pulling out three sets of roller skates. "Then let's roll."

And the three of them were gone in a flash. Unknown to them, however, they were being watched all the while.

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The next morning, the CID bureau door burst open and the man himself, ACP Abhijeet, strode in. To say he looked like a thundercloud would be the understatement of the century. It was no surprise that he came up to the table and banged his fist on it. As he spoke, the words rang around the room. "The children are missing."

"What?" Vivek and Tasha exclaimed in unison, staring at him with identical nonplussed looks. Daya entered the room, his face set in grim lines. It was clear that neither of the senior officers had slept a wink all night. "Adi and Saara never came home last night. And according to Dr. Niyati, Kenny didn't either."

"But..." Sachin fumbled. "How did they go missing all of a sudden, sir? I mean, they were fine until yester-"

"Guys."

Everyone turned to see Dr. Niyati in the doorway. She looked even worse than Abhijeet and Daya. "Kenny's mobile is off. So is Saara's... but Adi's kept ringing. No one picked up."

"We have to go." Abhijeet's tone was sharp with finality. "Now."

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"Sir, look at this."

"What?" Daya dropped to the ground swiftly on one knee to check out what Vivek was showing him. There were three sets of tracks, obviously made by small, smooth wheels, like-

"Roller skates," Daya muttered. "The kids must have gone this way. Abhijeet!" he shouted over his shoulder, and the ACP emerged from Daya's house at once. "Found something?"

"Look." Daya showed him the roller skate tracks, and the duo followed them to the front of the house, where they were cut off by the pavement. "Judging by the tracks, they must have gone in this direction." Abhijeet pointed, and frowned. "That's odd. Why would they go this way? None of their favourite haunts are anywhere in that area."

"How about we ask around, sir?" Vivek suggested, and Abhijeet nodded. "It's worth a try... Three kids on roller skates in the middle of the city aren't exactly easy to miss."

Sure enough, within a few minutes the owner of a roadside stall confirmed that he had seen the three teenagers. "Sure, I saw them yesterday. Passed right by here, actually. I heard _that _kid-" he pointed a skinny finger at Adi's face in the photo Vivek was holding up to him "-talking about the beach."

"The beach?" The team exchanged looks, and Abhijeet turned back to the shopkeeper. "What did Adi say? This boy, I mean?"

The shopkeeper shrugged. "Couldn't hear much, but I did hear him telling the others they had to get to the beach before the deal was done."

_"Deal?" _echoed Daya. "What kind of deal? Did you hear anything else?"

"Nope." The man shook his head. "They were on those wheels... whadduya call 'em... iskates, all of them. Went off before I could hear anything else." He pointed down the street. "They went that way and turned the corner." The team was gone before he could blink.

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"Uhh..."

Adi now had a pretty good idea how his father must have felt in all the stories he'd heard throughout his childhood. His head felt like a rock, a dull ache throbbing all around it. Rubbing his forehead, Adi winced and looked around. In an instant, all other thought left his mind and he sat bolt upright. He was in a dark room, almost pitch-black except for a few faint rays of light emitting from the tiny cracks around the apparently boarded-up window. As he felt around blindly in the dark, his hand made contact with something soft. _Wool?_

"Saara!" His frantic whisper echoed around the room. He crawled over to her and began to shake her gently. "Saara, wake up! _Saara!"_

"Huh!" Saara's body gave a violent jerk and she sat up slowly, pushing some stray hair out of her face and squinting through the darkness until she found Adi's shiny eyes staring worriedly back at her. "Adi... where are we?"

A groan came from somewhere behind Adi, and the latter whirled around, his hands fumbling around until another hand dashed against his with a smack. "Adi?"

"Kenny?"

"Where are we?" Kenny asked, and Adi and Saara heard him fidgeting with something. A minute later, a bright beam of light appeared and the two of them reflexively shut their eyes. "I'm gonna go look for the light," said Kenny's voice, and they heard his footsteps move across the room. Sure enough, within a few minutes there was the clicking sound of a switch, followed by Kenny's shocked gasp.

"What?" Saara asked, and the next second she gasped as well and Adi's jaw dropped. They weren't alone in the room.

A girl was lying, apparently unconscious, on the floor near Saara. She was delicate-looking, with sharp features, stick-straight hair that fell to her shoulders and a complexion on the fair side. She wore a light blue top and a dark green-and-purple skirt that were rumpled and dirt-smudged. A single purple flip-flop dangled from one foot.

"Who's she?" murmured Adi, frowning down at the girl in confusion. "And where the hell _are_ we?"

No sooner had these words left his mouth than a sharp rapping noise sounded on the door. "Hey, kids. Hope you're comfy in there." There was a high-pitched, wheezy laugh, and the first voice continued with a nastily gleeful tone. "The boss will see you as soon as he gets back. In the meantime, sit quietly like good little kids." The voice turned menacingly friendly. "And don't even bother trying to escape, or we'll have to do something you really won't like. Got it?"

"What's this place? And who are you people?" Adi demanded, but was cut off by the man's voice, which was now sharp. "The boss will be here soon, little man. Ask him whatever you want to. Now you and your little friends shut up and stay put."

"Wh-" Saara started, but fell silent when they heard the man leaving. She sighed and looked around at Adi and Kenny. "Now what are we gonna do?"

Little did she know that far away, her father was asking the same question. "Now what are we gonna do?" Daya asked as the CID team stood facing a dead end.

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A/N: My usual question- should I or should I not continue? Review with your opinions, please! :)


	2. At The Beach

A/N: After reading the reviews, I think I owe you guys some answers. :)

_**Q: What happened to ACP Pradyuman and Dr. Salunkhe?**_

A: Well... they're not exactly young right now, are they? And this story takes place about 18 years in the future, which would make both of them above 80 years of age. Judging by their lifestyles, one can't really expect them to live that long, right? So... you know. They've been freed from all their troubles and have moved on to a better place. And Freddy's retired (since he himself is in his 60s, plus his health isn't the best.)

_**Q: Are Vivesha married?**_

A: Yes, they are. But no, they don't have children. This is because they knew that their kids would always be in constant danger, and since there were already three children to take care of (Adi, Saara and Kenny) they didn't want to contribute to the cause. Plus, good old Manisha already owes half the grey hairs on her head to Adi and Saara, and the last thing she needs is more responsibility ;)

_**Q: How did Abhijeet become ACP, and has Daya started calling him 'sir'?**_

A: Well, after Pradz's passing, obviously the throne went to the crown prince. And as we saw in the first chapter, Daya still calls him by his name. After all, you don't just start calling your best friend of more than twenty years (at that time) "sir" just because he's now in a higher position than you.

_**Q: Is the new girl Muskaan's daughter?**_

A: No, she most certainly is not (I suppose you got that idea from her hair :D). You'll find out who she is soon.

And by the way, this story is not in accordance with Small Mercy. Here Abhirika got married and then had Adi like a good proper couple.

Anyways, on with the chapter!

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Several minutes passed in silence before Kenny finally spoke. "Well, first things first." He knelt down beside the unconscious girl. "Saara, I hope you have a water bottle?"

"Here you go." Saara pulled a big plastic bottle of mineral water from her backpack and handed it to Kenny. He opened the cap halfway and shook the bottle over his hand, letting several drops fall into it. This water he splashed onto the girl's face. He repeated this three times before her eyelids flickered and her features twitched. As the three of them watched, she slowly stirred a little and opened her eyes. Seeing them, she sat up, looking confused and scared. "Wh-who are you guys?"

"We were going to ask you the same thing," Saara said, giving the girl a curious look. "How did you get here? Did they kidnap you too?"

The girl nodded. "I was in the library last night. It was pretty empty, but after a while I suddenly heard a noise behind me. When I turned around no one was there, but then someone hit me on the back of my head and I think I fainted. When I got up, I was in a car and my hands were tied. Those guys gave me an injection- I'm pretty sure it was a tranquillizer. Next thing I know, I'm getting water splashed on my face." She shook her head in bewilderment, and Adi and Saara exchanged glances.

Kenny, on the other hand, smiled. "Well, as long as we're all stuck here..." He held out his hand. "I'm Kenny. Kaushik, actually, but no one ever calls me that." Smiling back, the girl shook his hand. "I'm Jeanie. Jennifer, actually, but no one ever calls me that." Adi and Saara laughed, and Kenny grinned. "And these two nutcases are Adi-" Adi saluted "-and Saara." Saara waved, and Jeanie smiled at both of them.

"Well, now that the formalities are over..." Kenny clapped his hands and adopted a brisk tone of voice. "Let's get down to business."

Adi and Saara grinned, but Jeanie looked confused. "What?"

"Don't you want to get out of here?" Saara asked brightly.

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"OK," Abhijeet yelled over the crash of the waves. "Vivek, Tasha, go that way. Sachin, this way. And Daya, you're coming with me."

"Yes sir!" three voices chorused before Vivek and Tasha headed to the left and Sachin to the right. Abhijeet and Daya went around the middle part of the beach, and Abhijeet's mind wandered back in time to a particularly memorable incident at this very spot.

FLASHBACK

"Look, Adi," Abhijeet said, pointing to the sea. "That's a _lot _of water, eh?"

The two-year-old's already big eyes widened even more, and he waved his little hands enthusiastically. "Down! Down!" he demanded, bouncing up and down in Abhijeet's arms. "Pumme down Papa!"

Abhijeet carefully let him down onto the ground, and Adi let out a squeal of laughter, clapping his hands as the breeze stirred his hair. "Wheeee!" he said energetically, and walked a few unsteady steps on the sand before he stumbled. Abhijeet caught him at once, and carried him over to the water. "Careful, now... here," he said, and lowered Adi just enough for the wave to wash over the child's toes. Adi laughed in delight and kicked at the water with his tiny feet.

About half an hour later, when Abhijeet was carrying Adi back to the car, he realised that his son was fast asleep, one small hand clutching a handful of his shirt and the other on his shoulder. Looking at the little boy's sleeping face, Abhijeet suddenly felt as though he needed nothing else at the moment.

END FLASHBACK

"Abhijeet."

"Huh?" Abhijeet broke out of his reverie and looked up at Daya, quickly blinking the wetness away from his eyes. "What?"

The senior inspector was holding out something small and round. "Look at this."

Frowning, Abhijeet took it, and a jolt of recognition instantly hit him. "Adi-"

"It's Adi's compass." Daya's voice was heavy. "The one I gave him on his sixteenth birthday."

Sure enough, when Abhijeet turned the compass over in his hand, there was an A engraved on the back. "This means the shopkeeper was right, the kids _did _come here!" He looked around the still-empty beach. "But the question is, where did they go from here?"

"Sir?"

Both of them turned to see Tasha approaching, accompanied by Vivek. She had a frown on her face and something purple in her hand. "I found this near the lighthouse. It isn't Saara's, as far as I know..." she paused and held it out. The duo saw that it was a girl's flip-flop. "But I thought I should show you... It's got blood on it."

"What?" Daya practically snatched the slipper from her hand. As she had said, there was a small streak of dried blood at one end, implying that the owner had injured her heel. Trying not to imagine the sorts of situations Saara and the boys could have gotten into, Daya handed it back to Tasha, who put it in a clear plastic bag labelled EVIDENCE. "Send that to the lab. And where's Sachin?"

"Here, sir," Sachin called. He was dusting off his hands as he came up to them. "There was nothing on that side."

"Never mind. We've got something." Abhijeet brushed his hair out of his eyes. "Let's see what Tarika makes of this."

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The CID team had entered the forensic lab more than a million times before. This time, however, it was different. Dreadfully so.

Tarika was standing over her microscope, staring down at it in such a way that it appeared as though she wasn't really seeing it at all. Her shoulders were slumped, her head bowed. None of the CID team, including Abhijeet, had ever seen her looking so defeated.

Abhijeet took a few tentative steps forward. "Tarika," he said, his voice barely above a whisper. Even so, it echoed all around the deathly silent lab.

She looked up, and Abhijeet's heart gave a painful wrench as he looked at his wife's red, swollen eyes. Tarika looked helplessly back at him for a minute, then averted her gaze and quickly wiped her tearstained face before taking a deep breath and turning to face the team, who were all looking worriedly at her. Indeed, Tasha herself looked close to tears.

"The slipper you found... that blood isn't any of the kids', but the reports should arrive any minute now." Tarika bit her lip, and Abhijeet took her hand and held it tight as she continued. "And... and Adi... Adi's compass... nothing." Her voice cracked, and Abhijeet patted her shoulder as Tasha came over and hugged her. "We'll get him back... we'll get them _all _back," she said determinedly, meeting Daya's moist eyes across the table.

"And we'll make whoever took them regret it for the rest of their lives," Vivek growled. His normally calm face was flushed, his hazel eyes blazing. That sort of sealed the deal for everyone, and Abhijeet and Daya exchanged grim looks. "We'll find them," Abhijeet said, in a tone which left no doubt in anyone's mind.

"Even if we have to go to the ends of the earth to do it," Daya added in a low growl.

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A/N: Sorry it's a bit short, but my college has started and I'm really busy. I promise I'll update as soon as I can, though. Hope you liked! :)


	3. Pendants, Rings and Cricket Jerseys

A/N: Thanks for all the reviews! :D

Sorry for making you wait. I had a particularly nasty experience with some CID fans in Facebook and as a result had writer's block for a while. Can I just say that it really feels weird, being insulted by someone much younger than you? But anyways, thanks to the steadfast support of my best friend, I'm better now.

Enough about me, on with the show! :)

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"Closer... yeah, great... just a bit... ouch! Not _that _much!"

"Sheesh, Kenny!" Adi grumbled, staggering slightly under the not-very-heavy weight of his best friend, who was currently seated on his shoulders and trying to peer through the window. "Why can't you just climb the wall like a normal person!"

"I would," Kenny said through clenched teeth. "But unfortunately, I don't have my Spideys at the moment, so you'll just have to put up with it until I get a good look out of here, Boss."

"Spideys?" Jeanie asked.

"They're special climbing tools that I invented," Kenny explained, from where he was still teetering precariously on Adi's shoulders. "Basically gloves with an attaching mechanism, that can stick to just about any surface as long as it's not wet. I've started making similar shoe soles, too."

Jeanie looked mightily impressed, and Saara cleared her throat significantly, a smug grin blooming across her face. Adi bit his lip to prevent himself from snickering, and Kenny, noticing his friends' signals, blushed a brilliant scarlet and turned his attention determinedly to the window. "Hang on, Adi, I've got it." He caught the window-sill with both hands, his unibrow knitting as he frowned. "Looks like we're not very high up. I'd guess the third or fourth floor."

"Not bad," Saara remarked, but then her face fell. "Oh, damn. We can't get through that window. Maybe Jeanie could... but the rest of us certainly can't."

"Why me?" Jeanie raised her eyebrows questioningly at Saara, who gave her an isn't-it-obvious look. "Because you're the thinnest, of course. Even so, it'd be pretty useless. It's too high to try climbing out of without Spideys, and not even Adi can lift you high enough for you to climb out." She shook her head thoughtfully, and suddenly her face brightened. "Hey, you think I could try and break this door down?"

Adi gave her a look. "Suckerpunch, somehow I really don't think this is the time to try and emulate Daya uncle's stunt, even though it _is _your dearest ambition. We're already in enough trouble as it is, we don't need you to be crippled on top of that."

"Fine!" snapped Saara, and sat down on the floor, her shoulders slumping as she let out a sigh. "Sorry, guys. It's just... I _hate _being helpless, you know?"

Kenny climbed down from Adi's shoulders, and the latter went over to sit down beside Saara. "Hey... we know," he said quietly, putting a comforting arm around her shoulders. "Kenny and I hate it just as much as you do. But come on, Saara... we can't just do anything that comes to our minds. These guys could be really dangerous. We'll have to plan everything carefully before we try to escape."

Saara leaned her head on Adi's shoulder, her expression simultaneously miserable and frustrated. "Papa and Abhijeet uncle must be going nuts by now. And I'm pretty sure Tarika aunty will have cried her eyes out."

"Not to mention _my _mom," Kenny murmured. "I'm all she has..." He shut his eyes and clenched his fists in an effort to compose himself, and Jeanie, who was standing next to him, instinctively reached out and patted his shoulder. He raised his eyes in surprise to meet hers, and she gave him a sad, faint smile. Strangely, it made him feel a little better.

Across the room, this scene made Adi and Saara feel better as well, and they exchanged discreet smiles. At least _something _was going right.

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The bright, warm atmosphere of the park had no effect on Daya. What else could be expected when the real light of his life had been taken away from him to goodness knew where?

He pulled out his wallet and flipped it open. Saara's photo was displayed in the clear plastic compartment. A faint smile automatically stretched his mouth, as it always did when he saw his daughter. It was a recent photograph, taken about three weeks previously. Saara was in a pale pink and grey top, with her long hair tumbling freely past her shoulders and ending in soft curls just above her waist. Her round face was lit up by a quirky smile that made her eyes twinkle with merriment. Looking at it, Daya's mind drifted back to a particularly memorable day.

FLASHBACK

"And take this to the file room-"

"Hey, Daya!" Abhijeet called from the doorway. He was grinning. "There's someone here to see you!" Daya gave his best friend a questioning frown. "Who?"

The question was answered the very next second, as what seemed to be a small purple and blue missile came streaking into the room and launched itself at Daya. "Papaaaa!"

"Hey, Saaru-bear." Daya swung her up into his arms. At the age of eight, she was incredibly boisterous, and her voice would sometimes get even louder than Adi's. "How was school?" he asked as he put her down on the table and took her school bag.

"Great," Saara said happily, her pigtails bobbing up and down in her excitement. "We were playing cricket all afternoon 'cause our teacher was absent. Look, I fell down!" she said proudly, lifting her arm to display three graze marks just below her elbow. Daya gasped in horror, quickly catching her arm to get a closer look. "You got hurt? How did you fall down? Where did you-"

"Papa!" Saara pouted. "I'm not a baby!" She pulled her arm out of his hands and looked the other way, looking very put out indeed.

"What's going on here?"

"Sir!" Daya's head whipped around to see ACP Pradyuman entering the bureau. Beside him, Abhijeet looked as though he was trying not to smile. The ACP beamed as he caught sight of his granddaughter. "Saara! What a pleasant surprise." He went over and gave her a hug. "What's the matter?" he questioned, noticing her expression. "Daya?" He raised an eyebrow at him. "Why does Saara look down in the dumps?"

Sheepishly, Daya explained the matter, and ACP Pradyuman rolled his eyes. "Oh, Daya, you really need to stop babying her so much. She's a big girl now, aren't you, Saara?" he asked the child, who nodded. "See, Papa? ACP sir agrees with me," she said triumphantly. "I'm a big girl, I am." She drew herself up majestically in an attempt to prove her statement, and Abhijeet covered his mouth tightly with one hand to stop himself laughing. Vivek chuckled outright, and Daya glared at him. "Vivek, didn't I tell you to take those records to the file room?"

Vivek's fair face flushed red in embarrassment and he hurried out of the room. Daya turned to Saara, bending slightly so that he was at her level. "Sorry, beta. It's just that I get worried too easily. You know how precious you are, don't you?" He patted her chubby cheek. "But you're right, you _are _a big girl now. Though you might have grown up a little too fast," he added in an undertone, and ACP Pradyuman smiled and patted him on the shoulder.

"Papa?" Saara's voice was quiet as she looked up at her father, her brown eyes serious. Daya turned to her and smiled. "So how did you get hurt? Playing cricket?" At once, Saara's face lit up and she immediately burst into an elaborate, dramatic explanation of how spectatularly she had taken someone's wicket by flinging herself bodily onto the ground to catch the ball.

END FLASHBACK

"Daya?"

"Huh!" Daya jerked out of his reminiscence and looked up to meet Abhijeet's eyes. "Hasn't he showed up yet?" the latter asked, glancing around the park. "I thought he said 2 o'clock, now it's almost 3 and there's still no sign of him!"

As if on cue, they heard a noise behind them, and turned to see a skinny, scruffy-looking man standing nearby, looking rather intimidated.

"_There _you are." Abhijeet straightened and bestowed his most deadly glare on the man, who made a little squeaking noise. "What on earth took you so long? Didn't I _tell _you it was urgent? Our kids are missing, for heaven's sake!"

"A-a-actually," the man stuttered, now visibly trembling. "I'm p-pretty sure they were k-k-kidnapped."

"Kidnapped?" Daya was on his feet in a second. "Why do you think that?"

"Cause a friend of mine was at the beach yesterday," the informer informed him (yes, I did that on purpose :D). "And he saw a bunch of guys carrying four unconscious kids into the lighthouse. Then when I got your call this morning, I guessed they must be yours."

Abhijeet, however, caught onto something else. "Wait. Did you say _four _kids?"

"Yeah-" the informer started, but Abhijeet cut him off. "We have only three kids missing. My son, Daya's daughter and their friend. Where did this fourth one come from?"

"I don't know, sir, but he's sure he saw four kids being carried in by those kidnappers," said the informer confidently. Daya briefly exchanged a glance with Abhijeet before slipping some money into the informer's hand. "OK, here you go. Clear off, quick." As soon as the man was gone, Daya turned to Abhijeet. "Remember the slipper?"

"The one Tasha found? With the blood on it?" Abhijeet realised immediately what Daya was talking about. "You think that might belong to this fourth kid?"

Daya nodded. "If we find out who she is, we might be able to figure out why they were all kidnapped." Abhijeet nodded grimly. "In the meantime, call the others. Let's go check out the lighthouse."

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No sooner had Saara reached for her backpack, than there was a rattling at the door and it flew open. The four teens winced as light flooded into the room, and they heard a voice- the voice of the same man who had talked to them in the morning. "Hey, kids. The boss wants to talk to you." The four of them exchanged looks, and scrambled up off the floor, Jeanie wincing slightly as the cut on her foot touched the rough stone floor. Saara was about to pick up her backpack, but dropped it at the last minute and hurried to follow the others out of the room.

The man led them along a dimly lit corridor, passing two doors before stopping at a slightly bigger, closed one. He raised his hand and knocked once before opening the door. "Boss? The kids-"

"Bring 'em in," said a drawling voice, and the man beckoned to the teens to follow him into the room. They did so, squinting in the sudden bright sunlight filtering in from the open window, at which a man in a trench coat was standing. He was turned away from them, looking out the window. It appeared to be him who had spoken- and this suspicion was confirmed when he spoke again.

"Why hello, little ones. How nice to finally meet you. Especially you, Adi and Saara. Quite the little celebrities, aren't you? Children of the oh-so-heroic-" his voice turned mocking "-oh-so-powerful, oh-so-perfect Abhijeet and Daya."

"That's _ACP _Abhijeet to you," growled Adi, his eyes glinting dangerously.

"And _Senior Inspector _Daya," Saara added in a venomous snarl.

The man in the coat seemed to find this highly amusing, for he spent a good three minutes chuckling nastily before continuing to speak. "Very good! You haven't disappointed me... you're _exactly _as I expected." His voice turned dangerously soft. "And you two... Kaushik, Jennifer... you two are kind of a surprise, but I must say you'll make excellent bonuses for my plan."

"Which is?" Kenny asked defiantly, his unibrow tightly knitted in a violent scowl.

The man laughed again. "Smart _and _brave! Good for Dr. Niyati. You're all she has in the world, aren't you, little man?"

Kenny's normally calm face contorted with rage, and Adi quickly caught his best friend's wrist, giving him a 'not-now' look. The man continued, a gleeful mirth seeping into his voice as though he had sensed Kenny's reaction. "As for you, Jenny, your uncle may not be a part of it any more, but that doesn't make him any less close to the CID, now, does it? After all, they're not likely to forget their favourite clown."

It was Jeanie's turn to flush scarlet with fury, and her hands balled into fists. "Don't you dare talk about my uncle like that," she hissed. "He was one of the best officers the CID ever had."

Adi, Saara and Kenny exchanged surprised looks at this new information, but they barely had time to react before the man started speaking again, his tone now deadly. "Careful, little lady. I'm nice to children, but try my patience too much and you'll end up really regretting it." One of the men standing in the back of the room took a threatening step towards Jeanie, and she fell silent, though she was still very red in the face.

"As I was saying before Jenny interrupted me, you're all here because, very simply, I want revenge on the CID. And what better way to do that, than you four? The officers will do anything to save their precious little darlings... let's see if that includes fulfilling my demands, shall we?"

"Boss!"

The kids whirled around to see a man at the door, panting heavily and clutching at the doorframe for support. He was sweaty-faced and looked utterly frantic. "Boss, we have to get out of here!"

"What?" the boss demanded, turning his head slightly. To the kids' disappointment, however, his face was still shadowed. "What are you talking about?"

"The CID's coming!" babbled the man, and Adi and Saara exchanged triumphant looks as Kenny and Jeanie grinned gleefully. "We have to clear out, _now!"_

"You three!" the boss snapped, waving his finger in the direction of the three men who were flanking the kids. "Get the kids out of here before they arrive!"

Before they knew it, the four of them were being hurriedly hustled out of the room, the men practically tripping over their own feet in their haste. Suddenly, Saara reached out and snatched at the jacket sleeve of the man nearest to her. "Wait! I left my things back in that room."

"So?" the man snapped, barely pausing to look in her direction.

"Could we just run back and quickly get them? Please?" Saara asked tentatively, and let a persuasively pleading note seep into her voice. "It'll only take a minute."

"Oh, fine!" the man barked. "But hurry up!" The four of them quickly made to dash back to the room, but one of the other men grabbed Jeanie's arm. "One of you stays here! No funny business, you hear?"

"I'll be fine, _go!" _Jeanie said, gesturing frantically to the others to get a move on. Adi, Saara and Kenny hurtled along the corridor, up to the room they had been locked in. Once inside, Saara wasted no time. Snatching up her bag, she faced the boys. "Guys, do you trust me?"

"Yes," both of them said at once.

"Good." Without another word, Saara held out her hand to Adi. "Give me your pendant."

"What?"

"Your 'A' pendant! The one you wear all the time!" Saara said, her tone bordering on hysterical. "Give it to me, Adi! _Please!"_

Adi stared at her, looking nonplussed, but reached up and removed the pendant. It was the letter 'A' hanging from a metal chain, a gift from the late ACP Pradyuman. Needless to say, this pendant was therefore one of Adi's most treasured possessions. Taking it from him, Saara undid the chain and did a very strange thing- she lifted her free hand and pulled off the ring she was wearing. It was a plain steel band, with her adoption date engraved on the inner surface.

She slipped one end of the chain through this ring, and it slid down with a faint rasping noise until it nestled against Adi's 'A' pendant. Hurrying over to the window, she quickly wound the chain around one of the bars and secured the fastener, so that the ring and pendant were in plain view. As he watched her do this, Adi suddenly had an idea as well, and turned quickly to Kenny. "Take off your shirt."

If Adi had been shocked by Saara's demand earlier, Kenny was in turn thoroughly appalled by Adi's. _"What?"_

"Hurry up, Kenny!" Adi's voice was rough with urgency as he pulled off his own hooded sweatshirt, leaving him in just the black T-shirt he wore underneath. "Just take off your shirt already! You can have my hoodie!"

Looking as though he wished he could sink into the earth right then, Kenny removed his jersey and handed it to Adi, who in turn handed him the hoodie. As Kenny put it on, shivering a little as the cold breeze hit his exposed upper body, Adi rolled the jersey into a bundle and tossed it into the shadows near the window. "Let's go." The authority in his voice was unmistakeable. At that moment, if anyone had seen and heard him, he would have been indistinguishable from his father.

"What's with the dress-change?" one of the men barked suspiciously as the three of them raced to catch up.

"It's chilly outside," Adi said at once. "Kenny's kind of sensitive, he catches a cold easily."

"OK, hurry up, the boss is waiting," the man in front said brusquely, and Adi, Saara and Kenny exchanged significant, worried looks as they hurried along behind him, Jeanie in tow. All of them were fervently praying that their plan would work out.

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/\\/\\/\\

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Tasha's voice echoed hoarsely around the empty room. "We're too late."

"Bloody hell!" Daya swore as he gave the door an almighty kick of frustration. The force was so great that the unfortunate piece of wood flew right off its hinges and went crashing to the floor. Beside Daya, Abhijeet didn't even bat an eyelid as the door fell- his eyes were too busy scanning the room. Noticing something shining at the window, he immediately went over to investigate. "Get over here, you guys!" he called, and the team hurried up and stood around him. "Look at this."

Unraveling the chain, Abhijeet's heart rate skyrocketed as he stared at the very familiar objects dangling from it- particularly the pendant in the shape of an A, that shone bright against the darkness of his palm. "Adi..."

"Saara," Daya whispered, cradling his daughter's ring in his hand as though it was the most precious thing on earth- of course, at that moment, it certainly was to him.

Vivek's attention, however, was somewhere else entirely. "Sir!"

Abhijeet and Daya looked down. Vivek was kneeling on the ground, holding something navy blue and red in his hands. Tasha bent down to get a closer look, and her fair skin turned sheet-white. "Oh my God." She reached down with trembling hands and took the thing from her husband. It was a cricket jersey, with the Delhi Daredevils logo printed on one side of the front. Turning it over, she saw a large white number 27 on the back.

"Delhi Daredev- _Kenny!"_ Abhijeet gasped as he ran over and lifted the jersey, staring at it in shock. "What on earth is Kenny's jersey doing here? You don't think they... _hurt _him?"

"Calm down, Abhijeet." Daya fought to keep his voice calm. "It's not the time to make assumptions. What we need to do is find the kids." He stared out of the window, where the sky was turning pink and gold. "Hang on, kids. We're coming."

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/\\/\\/\\

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A/N: Being backstabbed by people you thought were friends can really take a toll on your emotional health. As a result, I'm running a little low on self-esteem now... but your reviews would certainly make me feel better. So please tell me what you think! :)


	4. Slimesnake Chupacabre

A/N: Firstly, SO sorry for the delay! And thank you all so much for the encouragement and support. It really means a lot to me. :)

Secondly... happy reading! :D

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/\\/\\/\\

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"Tari- Dr. Niyati!" Abhijeet blurted out as the familiar sleek brown head of his friend snapped up from the computer. "What are _you _doing here?"

Dr. Niyati raised her eyebrows as she adjusted her glasses. "Very nice to see you too, Abhijeet. Want a cup of tea, over which you can explain why you're getting sand all over the floor of this poor lab?"

Abhijeet reflexively looked down. Sure enough, the wet sand sticking to his sneaker soles was now scattered across a large portion of the lab floor. He winced. "Thank God you're here. If it was Tarika she'd have thrown me out by the ears." He glanced around the lab. "Where _is _she, anyway?"

"She's your wife, not mine." Dr. Niyati said, grinning. "Shouldn't _you _know where she is?"

"Oh, _please!"_ Abhijeet sputtered. "Not again! As I've explained countless times to you and every single member of the CID team by now, just because she's my wife it doesn't mean I have to slip a GPS tracking device in her pocket or something-"

"Dr. Niyati." Daya, who had just entered the lab, stepped forward hastily to bring everyone back to the situation at hand. "Found anything? What happened to the girl's slipper?"

"You wouldn't _believe _what we found out about that."

Abhijeet and Daya turned to see Tarika standing in the doorway, a file in her hands and a thoroughly floored expression on her face. Abhijeet approached her at once, mingled concern and dread flashing in his eyes. "What? What did you find out?"

"This girl," Tarika said, holding up the file, "is related to Freddy sir. And when I called him up to ask him about it, the first thing he told me was that he was just about to call us anyway, because his niece Jennifer has gone missing."

"What?" Abhijeet and Daya exclaimed in unison.

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/\\/\\/\\

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_"What?" _Adi and Saara shouted in unison.

"Shhhh!" Kenny hissed, violently grabbing his friends' shoulders to silence them. Jeanie looked anxiously over her shoulder at the door, but fortunately it didn't seem as though they had been overheard.

"They're planning to _kill _us?" Adi said in a low, furious whisper. "Just like that? Four bullets and we're history?"

"How did you hear them anyway, Kenny?" Jeanie asked, and Kenny grinned. Reaching into his jeans pocket, he pulled out what looked like the cap of a fountain-pen and pressed the head of the cap. As he did so, a small metal rod, roughly the length of a cigarette, shot out from the open end. Kenny pressed the head of the cap several times, and each time a new rod shot out of the previous one, becoming progressively thinner until finally, the end point of an incredibly long antenna bumped against the closed door.

"Behold," Saara announced with a flourishing gesture, "the Antenna-Ear. Most useful eavesdropping device you'll ever get. Designed and invented by our favourite genius." She made a low bow to Kenny, who laughed and rolled his eyes at her as he clicked the control again, sending the antenna shooting back into the pen cap. "All I did was slip this under the door, and I heard every word those psychos were saying." His face grew grim. "They're planning to shoot us all and deliver our corpses to the CID bureau tomorrow night."

Jeanie, her face pale, unconsciously stepped closer to him, and Saara caught Adi's hand as she stared up into his eyes with her own worried brown gaze. Adi tightened his grip on her hand briefly before looking around at all of them. "Enough waiting around for the adults. We're getting out of here on our own."

The glint in his eyes, so much like his father's, left no room for any kind of doubt.

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/\\/\\/\\

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Dr. Niyati had always prided herself on being an extremely practical and sensible woman. Despite all she had been through over the course of her life, she had never let any of it affect her so much that it interfered with her work and regular routine. This, however... this was a different situation altogether.

Her eyes fell on a framed photo placed on her desk. It was a shot that had been taken more than five years ago, of a little Kenny sitting on the front steps of their house. He wore a pale blue polo shirt and jeans with a white cap, grinning broadly at the camera. Niyati remembered that day all too well.

FLASHBACK

"Mom!"

"Kenny, how many times have I told you to at least knock before coming in?" Niyati chastised her twelve-year-old son as he strode into the room she used as a mini-lab and flung himself onto the sofa. Her annoyance vanished, however, when she saw the look on his face. Setting down the conical flask she was holding, she went over to Kenny and sat down beside him. "What's the matter beta?"

He mumbled something.

"What?"

"It's _him," _Kenny said aloud, a dark scowl sweeping across his face. "He's driving us all mad."

Niyati frowned. Kenny and Adi had never had a serious fight in all the four years they had been friends, and even when they had fought- which was very rare- neither of them had ever refused to say the other's name. Keeping this in mind, Niyati proceeded with caution. "Are you talking about Adi?"

"Mom!" Kenny made an impatient gesture. "Of course I'm not talking about Adi! I'm talking about one of our least favourite people in the whole world." He rolled his eyes and made a face. "Dear old DCP Slimesnake Chupacabre."

Despite her concern, Niyati couldn't help bursting out laughing as soon as she heard that. "DCP _who?"_

"Shamsher Chitrole!" Kenny said quickly, mentally kicking himself for the slip of tongue. "I meant DCP Shamsher Chitrole."

"Sure you did," Niyati laughed. "But what happened? What did he do?"

Kenny made a face again, a much more disgusted one this time. "Seriously, he thinks he's so great just because he has a higher rank than all of us! Would you believe how he was talking to Abhijeet uncle and Daya uncle today? You'd think they were about five years old!"

"Really?" Niyati raised her eyebrows. "What was he saying?"

"Hang on." Kenny hunched his shoulders a little and widened his eyes, his unibrow rising almost to his hairline as he adopted a greatly supercilious tone of voice. "Murder, boys. Murder. You know, picking up a gun and sending bullets flying into someone, killing them? Or taking a knife and sticking it into someone's chest, killing them? Or feeding someone poison, killing them? You two have been in the CID for, what, almost twenty-five years. I'd expect you to know at least these little basic things by now," he sneered in a frighteningly perfect imitation of DCP Shamsher, accompanying the mimicry with some of the old man's favourite hand-gestures.

Niyati stared dumbfounded at her son for a full ten seconds, before both of them exploded into peals of laughter. Right then, right there, Niyati knew for sure that she had done a much better job of raising her child alone than she ever would have with his tyrannical father still around.

END FLASHBACK

Niyati was pulled out of her reminiscence by Tarika's quiet voice. "Niyati." Looking up, Niyati saw her colleague looking even more weary than ever. "I think I'll go now. I don't feel so good."

"OK." Niyati stood up and followed Tarika to the microscope table. "What's wrong? Apart from the obvious, of course," she added hastily, and Tarika shook her head. "Nothing... I just don't feel up to working today."

"You and Abhijeet aren't planning on giving Adi a younger sibling, are you?" Niyati joked halfheartedly, and Tarika gave her a wry smile. "Certainly not, unless I suddenly get a death wish. Besides..." her voice dropped as she looked away. "I couldn't even take care of Adi... how am I supposed to take care of another one?"

"Hey." Niyati's voice was firm as she caught her friend by the shoulders. "You're the best mother Adi could ever ask for. And he's grown up now. He can take care of himself. You can't protect him forever, especially considering the fact that we're all in the CID. Here the kids grow up much sooner than we think. Everything we go through, in some way or another they go through it too. And all of us should be proud that even in such a situation, we've raised three amazing kids who can pretty much do anything they put their minds to."

"I have faith in them," Tarika replied quietly. "But like you said, this is the CID. Anything can happen, especially when we least expect it."

Little did she know then, how true her words would turn out to be.

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/\\/\\/\\

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"Got everything I said?" Adi asked, looking around at the others.

"Yes, Boss!" Kenny said emphatically as he adjusted his belt, to which a variety of strange gadgets were now attached. Jeanie nodded vigorously, and Saara smiled grimly. "They'll never know what hit 'em."

"Which is what we're aiming for," Adi supplied. He picked up a pair of rollerskates in one hand and what looked like a bottle of mouthwash in the other. "We're just lucky they didn't take any of this stuff. It was bad enough they took away our mobile phones."

"The credit goes to you, of course," Saara said with a grin. "It was your idea to put everything into everyday objects that would appear useless to anyone who doesn't know what our Kenny is capable of." She gave Kenny an affectionate dig in the shoulder, and he grinned modestly. "Well, my gadgets are like me. Perfectly ordinary on the outside, but inside there's something not usually expected."

"Kenny," Adi said testily, putting his hands on his hips in a perfect reproduction of one of his father's most famous mannerisms. "Would you quit putting yourself down so much? You're the most brilliant guy of our age I've ever met. In fact, if it weren't for you, Dad and the others would be howling over all our corpses tomorrow night."

"For heaven's sake stop creating that depressing mental image," Saara barked at him as she slung on her backpack. "Getting out of here is gonna be difficult enough without all this negativity going around."

"I second that," Jeanie agreed, and glanced out the window. The stars were beginning to appear. "Guys, we'll have to hurry-"

"Wait." Kenny held up a hand to stop her, and did a strange thing. Dropping to the ground, he removed his sneakers and pulled off his socks. He then put on his sneakers again, stood up and handed his socks to Jeanie. "Here you go. I'm sorry they're all sweaty, but at least you won't get more cuts on your feet."

Jeanie looked visibly touched as she took the socks from Kenny. Quickly sitting down, she pulled them onto her own feet, folding them down so that they ended just above her ankles. Once this was done, Kenny held out his hand, and she caught it and got to her feet.

"Saara," Adi muttered, his broad grin visible even in the falling darkness as he nudged her. "Are you thinking what I'm thinking?"

"You bet I am," Saara murmured back, fighting to stop herself giggling. "If we get out of here alive, the first thing I'm gonna do is set these two up."

"You mean _when _we get out of here alive," Adi corrected her.

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/\\/\\/\\

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A/N: I hope it lived up to the expectations! And I'll probably take a while to update the next chapter, because this will be the climax and I'll need to think a lot to write it properly. So please bear with me until then! :)

As for the kids' nickname for the DCP, 'Slimesnake Chupacabre'-

Slimesnake: The most fitting description which sounded closest to 'Shamsher'. Basically just saying he's a slimy snake.

Chupacabre: A chupacabra is a blood-sucking monster that kills small animals by sucking their blood. The name literally means "goat-sucker" in Spanish (chupa: suck, cabra: goat). The kids call him that because he seems to suck the life's blood of the CID (all their hard work and positive feelings) whenever he enters the bureau.


	5. Truths and Battles

A/N: Well, here it is. The most important chapter. I'm not really used to writing action, but I'm giving it my best shot 'cause you guys deserve nothing less than the best. :D

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/\\/\\/\\

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"Stay close," Adi murmured. "Everyone still with me?"

"Yeah," came Jeanie's whisper from behind his left shoulder.

"Yup," Kenny's voice muttered from beside her.

"For goodness sake, we're all here!" Saara hissed. "You've taken attendance about six times already, can we just be quiet now before someone sees us?"

"OK, OK, chill," Adi said in an annoyed tone. When they reached the last door, he brushed his hair out of his eyes and reached for the handle. Slowly, cautiously, he opened the door a little and peered around it. As he had expected, there was a man standing guard outside. He was shifting restlessly from one foot to the other, yawning occasionally, but Adi's focus was mainly on the big shiny gun tucked into the man's pocket. His eyes narrowed.

Before anyone realised what was going on, least of all the guard, Adi had yanked the door open, snatched the man's gun from his pocket and delivered him a powerful whack over the head with it, sending him crashing to the floor where he lay unconscious.

"Whoa," Kenny said admiringly, looking down at the man. "Those are some _excellent _reflexes you got there, Boss."

"Dad's genes," Adi said simply. "Come on!"

The four of them raced down the dark hallway, Adi holding the guard's gun aloft in one hand. Suddenly, another man jumped out at them from the shadows with a yell, and Saara quickly dispatched him with a sucker-punch and a kick in the gut.

"Nice one!" Kenny panted as they dashed past an open door. The next second, three or four men were on their tail, all yelling and brandishing guns.

"I'll take care of them! Give me the Slidewash!" Kenny shouted to Saara, and she whipped out the bottle of mouthwash-like blue liquid from the side pocket of her backpack and tossed it to him. Skidding to a halt, Kenny spun around, uncapped the bottle and splashed the blue liquid all over the floor.

As soon as the men's feet touched the liquid, every single one of them slipped and fell flat on their faces. When they tried to get to their feet, they just fell again, even more spectacularly, with howls of shock.

"Most slippery liquid ever!" Kenny explained hastily to Jeanie as the four of them hurried on. "It'll be quite some time before they get out of that mess!"

"Spoke too soon!" Adi yelled as two more men came running. These two were by far the biggest and meanest-looking of the lot, and they carried equally mean-looking daggers.

But Saara was ready for them. A battle cry erupted from her throat as she charged at them, leaping into the air and attacking them so swiftly that they barely had time to blink. Unfortunately, they recovered from the attack quickly enough, and one of them grabbed Saara's arms from behind as the other raised his dagger. Before he could stab Saara, however, there was a loud bang and he dropped the dagger, seizing his hand and howling as his partner goggled in disbelief at Adi, who was glowering back at them. The gun he held was smoking.

Taking advantage of the men's temporary distraction, Saara jerked free of her captor's hold and kicked his still-howling partner in the jaw before whirling around and soundly punching the first man, her knee shooting upwards at the same time. He let out a yelp, doubling over in agony. "Get the knives!" Saara barked, and Kenny and Jeanie quickly snatched them up.

"_Go!"_ Adi bellowed, and the teens hurtled through the last door. As it burst open, though, all of them froze. There was a man in a trench coat, pointing a gun straight at them with an evil smirk. "Well, well, well. That was fast. Looks like I underestimated you kids after all." He was middle-aged, with a rather rat-like face. Everything about him just screamed the word 'criminal'.

"At least now you showed your face," Adi snorted, glaring defiantly at the man as the kids entered the room. "You're going to try to kill us either way, so how about giving us some answers while we're here?"

"Yeah," Saara spoke up, folding her arms. "Why _did _you kidnap all of us in the first place?"

The man leered at them. "Typical little CID brats, aren't you? Well, like you said, I'm gonna kill you anyway. So you might as well know why you're gonna die." His face hardened and his voice turned bitter. "My sister died because of you CID people. Your mom's all you have, isn't she, Kaushik?" He turned the gun in Kenny's direction. "It was the same with my sister. She was the only family I had. And they took her away from me forever." His tone became terrible. "_Your _parents." He pointed the gun straight at Adi, who gaped at him. "What the hell are you talking about?"

"She loved him!" the man cried, his voice echoing all around the room. "My sister was in love with your worthless father! And she loved him so much, she threw herself in front of a bullet that was meant for him! And it was... it was _my _bullet!" His voice cracked. "Your father made me kill my own sister!"

Adi looked as though he would have a coronary any minute. Saara, beside him, was staring incredulously from Adi to the criminal and back again, and Kenny had a thoroughly flabbergasted expression on his thin dark face. Next to him, Jeanie looked totally lost and confused.

More than a minute passed by before Adi found his voice. "OK... so your sister was in love with my dad..." he shuddered as he said it. "How on earth does that make him responsible for her death in any way? It's not like he pushed her in the bloody bullet's path or something!"

The man opened his mouth, but was cut off by a new voice. "Hold up, Vicky, I have something way better!"

The kids stared at the opposite doorway, where a woman was standing with a murderous look on her face. She seemed to be in her early thirties. Vicky, which was apparently the man's name, scowled at her. "What took you so long, Pari? I _told _you to hurry up!"

"Oh, shut up," snarled the woman, or Pari as she was apparently named. "I'm here, aren't I?" She turned to the kids, and her gaze grew scathing as she looked Adi up and down. "So this is the kid, is it?" she asked viciously. "You were right, he's the spitting image."

"That's him," Vicky said, turning his gun on Adi again. "Adi, meet Pari. She has something interesting to tell you, too."

"That's right, little man," Pari sneered. "Ever heard the name Survi?"

"Nope." Adi shook his head, and Pari's face filled with fury. "Well, she was my mother. And your dad knew her well. Very well. So well, in fact, that they were planning to elope before he had that _tragic_-" she made quote marks with her fingers "-memory loss."

"What?" Adi exclaimed, his face scrunching in disgust. "My dad would never do something like that."

"Well, guess what, little Mr My-Dad-Is-The-Greatest-Soul-In-The-World," Pari retorted. "You can ask your uncle Daya, too. He knows the whole story. And he read your dad's old love letter to my mom, too."

"_What _letter?" Kenny sputtered, as Saara gave a loud exclamation of outrage. "How _dare _you!" Adi held up a hand, and both of them fell silent. Pari continued, her voice rising to a growl. "Even after he forgot all about her, my mom was in love with your dad till her last breath just three months ago!"

"Is there anyone in this town who _wasn't _in love with my dad?" Adi yelled, flinging his hands up in frustration. Saara exchanged highly discomfited looks with Kenny and Jeanie, just as a new voice piped up. "Oh! Oh, I know someone!"

Everyone's attention turned to the doorway, where another woman, slightly younger than Pari, was stumbling into the room. She was rather plump, with shoulder-length hair dyed a reddish sort of brown. "My mom wasn't in love with your dad!" she said brightly to Adi, whose shoulders slumped in relief. "Thank good-"

But the woman wasn't finished. "_He _was in love with _her!"_ she added proudly. "Ever heard of Shruti? Your dad must have talked about her sometime. I'm her daughter, Binny."

Adi turned a sickly shade of white, looking as though he was going to faint any minute.

"Billions of blue blistering barnacles!" Saara exploded, her round face purple with rage and her brown eyes practically popping. "I can't believe we're all standing around discussing the lurid details of Abhijeet uncle's personal life right in front of Adi! You three-" she swung an angry finger in Vicky, Pari and Binny's direction "-should be ashamed of yourselves!"

"Oh, bad move, little lady," Vicky growled, his expression threatening as he raised his gun. "You talk too much. So... I'm gonna silence you first." He pointed the gun at Saara, but before he could fire, there was a loud bang and the crash of breaking glass. A split second later, the room plunged into darkness, and Kenny felt a hand grabbing his wrist. "Come on!" Adi's voice yelled nearby.

Before Kenny could do so, however, the hand holding his wrist suddenly left it, followed by a girl's scream, and Kenny's heart gave a terrible lurch. "Go on!" he shouted blindly in the direction he had heard Adi's voice coming from. "Adi, Saara, go! I'll get Jeanie! Just go! _Run!"_

"Hurry!" Saara's voice screamed back, and Kenny faintly heard the thud of sneakers fading into the distance, mingling with the sharp rapping of sandals. He turned and dashed in the direction from which he had heard Jeanie screaming.

Sure enough, he hadn't gone very far when he heard a scuffle and Vicky's furious snarl. "You're not getting away, kid. None of you are! I'm going to kill you all and send your corpses to the CID bureau for your family to-"

He got no further. Something hit his head with a dull _thunk_, and he fired a shot blindly into the darkness before he fell unconscious. "Jeanie?"

"Kenny!" Jeanie quickly scrambled up from the floor, and Kenny hurried towards her. "Are you OK?" he asked, his dark eyes anxiously searching her pale face. "Did he hurt you?" As soon as the words left his mouth, he winced. "Kenny, what-" Jeanie started worriedly, but her eyes widened as she stared in horror over his shoulder. _"Kenny!"_

He spun around and let out a loud gasp. Vicky's bullet, fired randomly into the darkness, had hit what appeared to be a can of kerosene. A red-gold glow was filling the room as flames spread rapidly, approaching nearer and nearer.

Kenny did a strange thing then. He ran to the window and looked out, then turned to Jeanie. "Do you trust me, Jeanie?"

"Kenny-"

"Jeanie." His voice was high with urgency. "Do you trust me?"

"Yes," Jeanie whispered, and Kenny gave her a lingering look before turning back to the window. To Jeanie's horror, he carefully swung his legs over it, one by one, so that he was sitting on the window frame, clutching it for support. "Climb on my back."

"What?" Jeanie wasn't sure she had heard right, and stared openmouthed at him.

_"Please Jeanie!"_ Kenny's voice was hysterical now. "It's either this or death!" He looked at her over his shoulder, his eyes softening. "Trust me. Please." Whatever Jeanie heard in his voice, she threw all logic to the winds and crossed the room to him. Looping her arms around his shoulders from behind, she hooked her legs around his waist so that he was carrying her in a piggyback style. The next minute, they were both falling through the air.

"Where are those kids?" Pari shouted angrily, looking wildly around. "Where did they go?" She glared at the four henchmen surrounding her. "You let them escape! Where are they?"

"Looking for us?" yelled a voice.

Pari and her henchmen whirled around, and the next second scattered hurriedly, screaming, as a motorbike zoomed towards them. Adi turned it sharply with a screeching of tyres and sat with his hair rippling in the wind, smirking at them. Saara sat behind him with her hands on his shoulders. Wisps of hair, that had come free of her braid, were falling messily around her triumphantly grinning face.

_"Get them!"_ shrieked Pari, and Adi kicked the bike into action with a loud _vroom_. As the henchmen chased them, Saara stood up, clutching Adi's T-shirt with one hand, and swung her backpack at each man's head with the other, sending them reeling. This merry chase continued for several minutes, before one of the men took out a pocket-knife. Opening it, he flung it with all his might at the bike, and to Adi and Saara's horror, it met its mark- within seconds, the rear tyre was flat, and Adi and Saara quickly leaped off as the bike went crashing to the ground.

"Aha!" they heard Pari yell in triumph, and the henchmen surrounded them as they lay sprawled on the ground. Before either of them could do anything, however, several gasps echoed all around. "What on earth is _that?" _one of the men demanded in shock.

Adi and Saara raised their heads to see something with a bright, silver glow approaching them. As it drew nearer, they saw that it was a huge silver lion, bounding towards them with its mane fanning around its head like a sunburst. Exchanging immediate looks of comprehension, Adi and Saara leapt to their feet, and huge grins broke out on their faces as the lion reared on its hind legs and roared. The henchmen all howled in terror, and Adi and Saara, seeing their chance, quickly delivered solid slaps to all of them, throwing in some punches for good measure. Saara even added Vivek's famous spinning kick as a grand finale, and the henchmen staggered away, running as hard as they could in the opposite direction.

It wasn't long, though, before they crashed into some more- and even greater- trouble.

"What's the hurry, boys?" asked a rough voice, and that was the last thing they heard before each of them got the slaps of their lives. Leaving the four men groaning feebly on the ground, the CID team hurried in the direction the men had come from. They had barely taken ten steps, however, when Tasha's loud gasp filled the air. "Look!"

Abhijeet, Daya, Vivek and Sachin froze in their tracks, and the CID team stared transfixed at the sight in front of them.

Three enormous animals- a sleek panther, a powerful bear and a majestic lion- were bounding gracefully towards them. They were all a beautiful silver colour, emitting strong glows. As they drew closer, the team noticed that they were slightly translucent, with a faintly filmy quality about them.

"They're holograms," Vivek's amazed voice whispered at Daya's shoulder. _"Incredible..."_

The three hologram animals suddenly disappeared in puffs of glowing silver smoke, that obscured the team's vision temporarily. When the smoke cleared, however, they could distinctly make out four figures approaching. As they came into the light, they stopped, standing a little distance away from the team.

On one side was Kenny, in Adi's hoodie that was slightly big for him, his face appearing oddly drained but with a tired smile gracing his features. He seemed to be leaning slightly on the slender, delicate-looking girl beside him, whose shoulder-length hair was very windswept. Her clothes were rumpled and dirty, and she wore only a pair of socks on her feet.

On the other side, Saara was standing with her backpack dangling from one hand, her breathing rather heavy. Her messy braid hung limply over one shoulder, escaped wisps of hair falling all around her flushed face. She looked exhausted, but triumphant.

In the middle was Adi. His hair was sticking up all over the place, his bangs falling messily over his forehead into his eyes. A gun was tucked into the waistband of his jeans, and his arms had grazes all over them. His eyes, however, were shining with triumph, visible even from the distance.

Kids and adults gazed at each other for several minutes, and then Saara shattered the thickness of the atmosphere by tossing her backpack down onto the ground and pelting towards Daya, her round face beaming like the moon that shone above them. Daya's brilliant smile broke out across his face as she launched herself at him, hugging him with all her might. He returned the favour with equal enthusiasm, though not equal strength for obvious reasons.

Vivek and Tasha, throwing dignity and maturity to the winds, rushed forward and caught Kenny up into a huge hug, letting go only when he let out a pained squeal of protest. Once that was done, however, Tasha turned her attention to Jeanie, who looked only too grateful.

Abhijeet, however, had eyes only for one kid. Adi was looking back at him with trepidation evident in his shiny dark eyes. There were obviously a hundred things running through the boy's head at lightning speed, but Abhijeet didn't have time for any of them. Stepping forward, he held out his arms, and Adi ran into them at once, clinging to his father like there was no tomorrow. Abhijeet actually felt tears burning his eyes as he held his son, and it was then that he understood what a miracle really was.

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"No more CID work for you lot," Daya said firmly as he climbed into the driver's seat of the CID van.

The kids erupted into loud protests at once, and beside Daya, Abhijeet raised his voice to be heard above the din. "That is, until you officially enter the training academy!"

"Yeah!" the kids cheered, and Adi and Kenny high-fived. Saara grinned broadly, and Jeanie smiled. Something suddenly came back to Kenny's mind, and he grimaced. "Yuck. Poor Tarika aunty."

"What?" Abhijeet twisted around to look curiously at him from the passenger seat. "What was that about Tarika?"

"Nothing!" Adi said hastily, catching on right away to what his best friend had been thinking about. "Nothing, Dad! Nothing at all, _right, Saara?"_ he emphasised, looking pointedly at her. Saara furrowed her brow in confusion for a minute, obviously trying to figure out what was going on, and within an instant it struck her and she made a disgusted face. "Oh, God. Did you _have _to talk about that, Kenny? I had such a bursting happy feeling! Now I won't be able to sleep tonight because of those..." she shuddered. "Thundering typhoons, I don't even want to think about it any more."

"Would someone please explain to us what's going on?" asked Vivek in exasperation. "We old people are rather weak at understanding what you kids are talking about."

"Come on, Vivek uncle," Kenny protested. "You and Tasha aunty are far from old."

"Meaning _we're _old, Abhijeet," Daya said dryly, and Saara giggled. "Oh, stop it, Papa."

"By the way, Jeanie," Kenny turned around to look at Jeanie, who was in the back with Vivek and Tasha. "How come you never told us you're Freddy uncle's niece?"

Jeanie blinked sheepishly. "Well, you guys never asked. And since I didn't know why we were kidnapped at first, I didn't think it was important. And even after we found out, I never actually got a chance to tell you. Like I said, none of you asked, so it just slipped my mind."

"Fair enough," Tasha agreed.

Adi smirked, and leaned closer to Saara so that only she would hear him. "Too bad Sachin uncle had to go with the policemen to deliver the criminals to jail. Else we could have put Jeanie on Kenny's lap due to lack of space."

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A/N: Phew! Hope it lived up to expectations! I'll post the last chapter as soon as I can (which I don't think will be very soon, but I promise I'll do my best!)

Credits:

Adi's line "Is there anyone in this town who _wasn't _in love with my dad?" was inspired by a similar line from _The Emperor's New Groove 2. _

Saara's lines "Billions of blue blistering barnacles!" and "Thundering typhoons" are two of Captain Haddock's most famous lines from the _Adventures of Tintin_ comics.

And I'm sure many of you will be wondering how Kenny and Jeanie made it out of that burning room alive after jumping from the window. Don't worry, it'll all be explained in the next chapter, including the mysterious hologram animals. :D

Review please!


	6. Explanations and Expressions

A/N: It's great that so many of you liked the climax! Thanks a lot for the reviews! :D

Just want to clear some doubts:

1) Survi did NOT raise Pari to hate Abhijeet. She fell into bad company as she grew, and when she found out about her mom's past she took it in a totally negative way. And Survi's death was natural (illness), it had nothing to do with Abhijeet. Besides, Pari didn't actually participate in the kidnapping- she was involved in many of Vicky's other criminal activities and only came there because she wanted to meet Adi and give him her (twisted) version of the story.

2) Binny was NOT, in any way, involved in the kidnapping. She was simply in the wrong place at the wrong time. As a matter of fact, she found out about the kids being kidnapped and actually came there to find out what happened to them, but due to an unfortunate lack of mental prowess (read: she's kind of dim), she ended up getting all lost and confused when Adi created the blackout.

3) I never said that everyone's dearest Abhijeet was in any way responsible for anybody's death. If you read again, you'll see clearly that it was VICKY who thinks that. Vicky, who was very close to his sister, never got over the fact that she died to save Abhijeet, who was supposed to be their enemy. Plus, it was HIS bullet she died by. How would anyone feel if they ended up accidentally killing their own sibling?

On this note, I'd just like to say that whoever Anon is, they're my most valuable reviewer (though I love you all of course :D), cause it's always Anon who points out every possible doubt that the readers could have so I can clear them in the next chapter. Thanks! ^_^

I hope I've covered everything, so as promised, here's the actual explanation!

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"I feel like a primary school kid going to meet the principal," Adi remarked apprehensively as he and Kenny ran up the front steps and stood before the door of Freddy and Manisha's house.

"Well, I feel like an office employee meeting the whole board of directors all at once," Kenny retorted, and reached out to ring the bell. Within a minute, the door opened, and Adi let out a low whistle. "Daya uncle!" he called, standing on tiptoe and craning his neck to make himself heard. "Where'd you find this knockout? And where's Saara?"

"Shut up," Saara said, though she was grinning. She looked entirely different from the tomboy Saara the boys were so used to- she was wearing an orange and pink salwar kameez with her long hair flowing loose. "Get in quick, we've been waiting almost twenty minutes for you guys."

The boys followed her into the hall, where the entire family was gathered. Jeanie, wearing a pink dress and perched on the arm of Manisha's chair, gave Kenny a radiant smile, which he shyly returned as he sat down next to his mother, who raised her eyebrows interestedly as she witnessed this exchange. "Something I should know about?" she whispered to Kenny, who blushed a deep scarlet and averted his eyes. "_Nothing_, Mom!"

"Niyati aunty," Adi called from where he was sitting on the floor at Tarika's feet. "I'll tell you the whole story later!"

Kenny widened his eyes in horror at his best friend, who smiled innocently back at him. "Traitor," Kenny muttered, and Saara, who was sitting at Daya's feet, winked at Adi.

"Kids," Freddy said, waving his hands for attention. "I think we'd all first like to know the whole story of what happened over the past two days."

Adi, Saara, Kenny and Jeanie all exchanged grimaces, and Saara shrugged as she looked at Adi. "You're the boss. You start."

Adi, a long-suffering look crossing his face, started. "My name," he said in a theatrical voice, "is Aditya, and I am the only son of ACP Abhijeet, formerly Senior Inspector, and Dr Tarika, who was and is the only lady awesome enough to match his awesomeness-"

"Whoa, whoa, whoa!" Vivek held up his hands. "We need the story in fast-forward, please, Adi, else we'll be sitting here all day listening to seventeen years' worth of events!"

"I'll do it," Kenny cut in patiently, rolling his eyes. "Well, it all started two days ago, when Saara called Adi and me and told us she had something really important to discuss." Before anyone could ask, he quickly elaborated. "See, we were trying to catch these drug dea- holy crap!" he exclaimed, his eyes widening in shock as he smacked himself on the head. "We missed them!"

"Oh my-" Saara gasped, but before she could say anything, Daya put a reassuring hand on her shoulder. "Don't worry, kids, we got them. That's why we weren't home when you all left."

"Thank God," Adi heaved a sigh of relief. "Go on, Kenny."

"Yeah, so we went to catch them. But even before we reached the beach, we were suddenly surrounded by these rowdy types-"

"And our Suckerpunch here broke the nose of the one who tried to catch her," Adi interjected, grinning broadly, and Saara inclined her head modestly as Vivek and Tasha applauded and Daya beamed proudly.

"But then they stuck tranquillizers in us, and the next thing we knew we were waking up in a cold, dark place that looked like one of the dungeons in _Harry Potter_. And it was there that we met Jeanie." Kenny gestured to her with the air of a show host announcing the star act, and she waved awkwardly around at everyone with a bemused smile. "They'd brought her in just a few hours before us."

"But how did they get you?" Freddy asked Jeanie, and she quickly recounted her kidnapping. "Then when I got up, these three were there." She indicated Adi, Saara and Kenny, and Saara took up the narrative. "After that all of us started trying to think of ways to get out of there. But then, two of those goons came and stood outside the door. They wouldn't tell us anything except that 'the boss'"- she made quote marks in the air "-would answer all our questions."

"Needless to say, that got Adi's famous ACP temper flaring up at once," Kenny piped up, smirking. "He was yelling swear words at the door for a solid five minutes before we could get him to calm down."

"What!" Adi sputtered above his mother's scandalised gasp. _"Aditya!"_ Tarika exclaimed, staring incredulously down at her son. "I thought I raised you better than that! You were swearing for five minutes in front of two girls? Especially after you'd only just _met _one of them?"

"Mooooooommmmmmm!" Adi whined as Tasha, Manisha, Saara and Jeanie burst into a fit of giggling and Kenny flashed him one of his most endearingly innocent smiles.

"All right, that's enough!" Abhijeet's voice rang out authoritatively, and everyone quietened down at once. "Down, Tarika," he said in a patronising tone as though addressing a pet dog, and Tarika made a face at him. Adi snickered and continued the story, raising his voice for attention. "When we were finally taken to meet their so-called boss, he started insulting all of you, and Kenny practically had to hold Jeanie back to stop her from attacking that guy-"

"That's a total exaggeration, Adi!" Jeanie protested loudly as Kenny blushed again under Niyati's smugly questioning smirk. "Mom, he's just being dramatic," he said firmly, and threw a cushion at Adi. "Get to the good part already!"

"Yeah, so then suddenly this other guy comes barrelling in, screaming about how the CID's coming, and the next thing we knew they were rushing us out of there. But then Saara convinced them to let us go to the room they locked us in, to get her bag. There we left-"

"Your 'A' pendant, Saara's ring and Kenny's Delhi Daredevils jersey," Abhijeet finished, and Adi nodded. "Bingo. They took us to that old house you all came to and locked us in a room on the- I think it was the third floor. We were all trying to think of how to get out-"

"-when Kenny overheard those kidnappers talking," Saara said darkly. "They were planning to kill us and deliver our corpses to the CID bureau. In fact, if we hadn't escaped, you'd all be looking at our dead-"

"Enough!" Daya cut her off, his voice agitated. He caught Saara's hand and touched her face, looking at her as though trying to make sure she was really there. Tarika let out a small whimper and hugged Adi tightly, just as across the room Niyati did the same to Kenny. Manisha had tears in her eyes as she held Jeanie's head securely against her shoulder.

"But how _did _you get out?" Tasha's voice came out in a hoarse whisper.

The four teens all took turns describing their escape in epic proportions. When they reached the part about the Slidewash, Tarika and Niyati spent nearly ten minutes interrogating Kenny eagerly about how he had made it, with Jeanie occasionally pitching in with her own questions.

"Mom, Niyati aunty, Jeanie," Adi said patiently. "I'm sure Kenny will tell you the complete step-by-step process later. Can we please get back to the story before Dad's hair turns completely white?" Predictably, that earned him a smack on the shoulder from Abhijeet, but was successful in getting the forensic doctors to leave Kenny alone. Shooting his best friend a grateful look, Kenny continued. "We were just about to get out of there, when all of a sudden this fellow in a trench coat appears and points a gun at us."

"Vicky?" asked Daya, and Kenny nodded. "That's the one. And Adi was like, since you're gonna kill us anyway you might as well give us some answers. And he said he'd kidnapped us to get revenge on the CID because his sister..." he broke off, glancing hesitantly over at Adi, whose expression was suddenly of the 'kill-me-now' variety.

"What?" Tasha looked from Kenny to Adi. "His sister what?"

"Oh, God," Adi mumbled. "Mom," he said aloud, raising his head to meet Tarika's questioning gaze. "I think you and me should step out for a while."

"What? Why?" Abhijeet demanded at once, and Saara and Jeanie exchanged winces as Kenny looked more and more uncomfortable by the minute. Niyati gave him a curious look, and he shook his head and buried his face in his hands. "Saara, you tell them!"

"What the- why _me?" _sputtered Saara indignantly, turning red as Daya raised his eyebrows down at her. "It's just as embarrassing for me as it is for-"

"_What's_ embarrassing?" Freddy shouted exasperatedly, throwing looks of utter confusion at all the children in turn. "Would somebody just tell us already?"

"!" Saara babbled in one breath, and her face turned so red that she mildly resembled a strawberry in a salwar kameez.

Abhijeet blinked at his niece, looking thoroughly lost. "OK, Saara, the only thing I heard in that was my name. Could you please repeat yourself, a little slower this time?" Saara let out a wail and looked helplessly over at Adi, who groaned and raked a hand through his hair. "It's OK, Suckerpunch, just spit it out! Let's get it over with!"

Saara, Kenny and Jeanie took turns telling everyone what they had heard from Vicky, Pari and Binny, and Abhijeet, his face even redder than any of the kids', stared at the floor as though he wanted nothing more than for it to open up and swallow him whole. Beside him, Tarika merely sat with her chin on her hand, looking at him with an unreadable expression. Adi was hugging his knees to his chest, his face determinedly hidden in them.

When that part of the story was finally over, Daya was the first one to make a brave attempt to continue the conversation. "Well, like I always said, Abhijeet was too popular for his own good. Still is, actually- no offense, Tarika," he added hastily, and Tarika sighed heavily and shook her head with a wry smile. "My husband, the chick-magnet. And by the looks of it, this one's going to be even worse," she remarked, ruffling Adi's hair. "He'll have all the girls eating out of his hand by the time he's out of college."

"Tell me about it," muttered Saara, rolling her eyes, and raised her voice. "Back on topic, please!"

"Finally," Adi snorted, lifting his head and shifting back into a normal sitting position. "Well, Vicky was about to shoot Saara, so I shot the light and the whole room went dark. I yelled at these guys to get going, but then we heard Jeanie screaming, so Kenny told Saara and me to go ahead and he went off to get Jeanie."

"Vicky dragged me into the nearest unlocked room he could find," Jeanie put in, brushing a lock of hair out of her face, "and would most certainly have killed me if Kenny hadn't thrown something at his head and knocked him unconscious in the nick of time."

"My torch," Kenny supplied, grinning. "But before he fainted Vicky fired his gun. Luckily the bullet didn't hit me full-on." He lifted the left sleeve of his T-shirt to show a bandage on his arm, where the bullet had grazed it. "But then it went and hit a bottle of kerosene, which naturally caught fire."

"As soon as he saw it, Kenny climbed onto the window-sill and made me climb on his back," Jeanie said, and all the adults in the room raised their eyebrows at Kenny, who gave them all a long-suffering look. "Let her finish, _please?"_

"Yeah, yeah, let me finish," Jeanie agreed, her eyes twinkling with amusement. "Well, once I climbed on his back, he made a swan-dive from the window."

The effect was immediate.

"WHAT?" Manisha, Tarika and Tasha bellowed.

_"Kaushik!" _Niyati yelled.

"Relax!" Kenny held up his hands defensively. "We had a perfectly safe landing! Hey, Saara," he called across the room. "Do you have your Leapleash?"

"Yup." Saara briefly rummaged in her sling bag before unearthing what appeared to be a very bulky mobile phone charger, except that it had neither a plug nor a wire but a kind of clip. She clicked a switch which was above the clip, and pulled at the base of the device. As she did so, a black cord emerged from the device, connected to another clip at the end Saara was holding.

"This," she said in an explanatory tone, "is the Leapleash. One of Kenny's most useful inventions. It uses roughly the same principle as bungee cords, except it can't reach the ground from more than four floors up. You clip the box to a window, or any fixed object made of metal, like a tap-"

"Why a metal object?" Tasha interrupted curiously.

"Because the clip is fitted with a powerful magnet on the inside," explained Kenny. "Once that was done, I just clipped the other end to my belt and bombs away." He made a swooshing gesture through the air with his hand, and Jeanie grinned. "I was so shocked, I actually forgot to scream when we jumped! Then of course I realised we were on a cord, so screaming would have been pointless anyway."

Everyone laughed, and Vivek raised his hand. "Excuse me, Professor Kenny?"

"Yes, Vivek uncle," Kenny said seriously.

"I assume those animal holograms were your work as well?"

A mischievous smile suddenly lit up Kenny's dark face, mirrored in Adi's and Saara's faces. Saara reached into her bag as the boys reached into their jeans pockets, and the three of them pulled out what looked like pocket calculators. As the team watched, Kenny entered a number into his calculator, and held it aloft.

The next second, the silver lion burst out of the calculator's display. Freddy and Manisha simultaneously let out gasps of wonderment, and Tarika and Niyati's mouths fell open. Vivek, meanwhile, was watching the lion's mane rippling with a thoroughly awestruck look on his face. "Kenny, those are very, _very _advanced graphics-"

His next words died in his throat as the silver panther leaped gracefully out of Adi's calculator to join the lion, followed by the silver bear from Saara's. As he looked at the bear, Daya seemed to suddenly understand something, and he turned an astonished gaze upon his daughter, who smiled back at him and nodded. "Yup."

"Oh, you." Daya hugged her, his eyes glistening unnaturally, and Saara giggled. "Papa, please, don't go all emo on me!"

"Did we miss something?" Freddy asked in confusion, and Daya rolled his eyes. "Freddy," he said patiently to the older man. "What do I call Saara when I feel particularly affectionate?"

Freddy blinked. "Saaru-bear... _oh!"_ he exclaimed, beaming as it finally dawned on him. "So _that's _why her hologram is a bear! Because it reminds her of you!"

"Ten points to Freddy uncle," Saara laughed as she and her friends applauded. It was then Abhijeet's turn to look confused. "But why is Adi's-"

"Everyone," Adi said to the room at large, looking as though he was trying not to smile. "Look at my hologram, and look at Dad, then back again. Please repeat this exercise until you understand why my hologram is a panther."

Obligingly, everyone's gazes shifted to the silver panther, which was prowling sleekly around Adi with a dignified, albeit rather tense-looking air. Predictably, Tarika was the first one to understand, and her face split into a wide grin. "Adi, beta, that is simply _brilliant."_

Abhijeet caught on as soon as she said that, and his eyes widened. "Adi, _seriously?"_

"Come on, Dad." Adi was openly smiling now. "You really think it'd be anyone else?"

"Ah, come here, squirt." Abhijeet leaned over Tarika to give Adi a tight hug, and Niyati looked from the lion to Kenny, who shrugged nonchalantly and smiled up at her. "It was the only animal that came to mind when I thought about you."

That earned him a hug as well, and Tasha, grinning, clapped her hands for attention. "OK, OK, that's enough hugging for now, guys!"

"Great, cause I'm hungry!" Saara declared, to much general amusement.

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"You two," Adi said, throwing his arms quickly around Kenny's and Saara's shoulders and steering them away from where Abhijeet and Daya were discussing the case as Vivek entered the details into the computer. "I have to tell you something which is not for my dad's ears. Or any of the adults', for that matter."

"What?" Saara asked, dropping her voice, and Adi grinned. "I got information on a massive theft being planned at-"

"Adi," Kenny interrupted in a shocked whisper. "You know Abhijeet uncle and Daya uncle told us not to-"

"We're not going to go and stop them, yaar," Adi cut him off impatiently. "But we _will _make sure the team does." He smirked. "Of course, I mean the official team. Because unfortunately, the CID Team Z, namely us, is temporarily put on hold until, like Dad said, we enter the training academy."

"Hey, guys!"

Kenny turned so fast that he almost strangled himself with Adi's arm, and quickly ducked under it to hurry over to Jeanie, who was entering the bureau. She was wearing a pale yellow top and a multicoloured skirt, a sling bag hanging from one shoulder. "I'm going home today," she told them breathlessly as she came over. "Just wanted to say bye."

"Keep in touch, all right?" Adi said, grinning at her, and Saara beamed as she gave Jeanie a quick hug. "You heard the boss. And steer clear of empty libraries."

"I will," Jeanie laughed, and Adi looked significantly at Saara. She caught on right away, and peered across the bureau. "Hey, Adi, I think Papa's calling us!" Before anyone could react, she and Adi had disappeared, leaving Kenny and Jeanie alone. Kenny looked awkwardly at the floor, fighting to keep himself from blushing. Unnoticed by him, Jeanie was in a similar situation, though in her case the blush was much more obvious thanks to her traitorous fair complexion.

"Um..." Kenny finally stammered, raising his head to meet her eyes. "You're going, then?"

"Kenny," Jeanie said patiently, smiling, "I still live in the same city, you know. It's not like I'm moving to Nigeria or something."

"Still..." Kenny reached into his jeans pocket and pulled something out. "Here. I've got something for you." He picked up her hand and slipped the object into it. "For you to remember me by."

Jeanie looked down at the thing in her hand, and a lump rose in her throat.

It was a pocket calculator.

"Press 1-4-3," Kenny instructed, and Jeanie did so, her fingers trembling slightly. As soon as she had entered the code, something silver and glowing erupted from the display, and when the hologram landed smoothly in front of her, Jeanie saw that it was a large wolf, with a thick line of fur above its eyes just like Kenny's unibrow. Of their own accord, tears filled her eyes. "Fitting," she heard herself whisper.

"What?" Kenny asked tentatively.

"The wolf." Jeanie blinked back her tears and looked at him. "It represents wisdom. Fitting," she repeated, smiling, and Kenny grinned shyly. "I wasn't trying to show anything like that, but if you say so..."

She cut him off by catching his hand gently with her free one. "Thank you," she murmured. "It's the best gift ever."

"I'm glad you like it," Kenny whispered back, and Jeanie's eyes shone as she beamed at him. "I'll see you later." She let go of his hand and hurried towards the door, giving him a final smile before streaking off down the corridor and out of sight.

As soon as she was gone, Kenny looked down at his hand. There was a folded-up paper in it. Opening it, he saw Jeanie's name written on it in neat cursive script, followed by a phone number and email address. Under this was a smiley. Kenny was still gazing at the paper when he heard Adi's voice beside him. "Well?"

Kenny lifted his eyes to look around at his best friends, who were both grinning expectantly at him. "Guys," he said, his tone and eyes filled with wonderment. "I'm in love."

Across the room, Abhijeet and Daya exchanged knowing smirks.

**~THE END~**

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A/N: Well. Finally. That's that. Please, please, PLEASE, review with your opinions, whatever they may be. If anyone still has doubts, I will answer them in a review, so don't worry about that. Hope you liked it! :)

Just so you know:

I got my idea for the holograms from the Patronuses in Harry Potter. If you've read the books, you'll know what I mean, but I'll explain anyway- a Patronus is something created as a symbol of hope and happiness, to defeat the power of despair and hopelessness. It's the projection of someone's soul, and takes the form of whatever they think of as a guardian. That's why Adi, Saara and Kenny's holograms are animals that represent their parents.

When Kenny gave Jeanie a hologram representing himself, he was indirectly trying to say that he'll protect her and give her hope and happiness. Plus, the code he set for her hologram is 1-4-3... and we all know what that means. ;)

And before I forget... sorry if anyone's disappointed by Tarika's reaction to 'The Tale of Abhijeet's Three Experiences'. But you know, in this story they've been married eighteen years, so I figured she'd be pretty used to this kind of stuff by now, and just laugh it off. :D


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